The Douglas Bader Foundation is a charity organisation, formed in honour of Sir Douglas Bader in 1982 by family and friends, many of whom had flown side by side with Douglas during World War 2. Douglas was honoured in 1976 with a Knighthood for his contribution and work on behalf of the disabled. The mission of the foundation is to continue Douglas’ work in conjunction with and on behalf of individuals with a disability.

FITA spoke to David Bickers, the Chairman of the organisation about Douglas and the work of the foundation.

This movie is from our first Freedom Wings day in 2010 at Cranfield Aiport. It was held on May 22nd with guests from the Variety Club organisation. 10 lucky children were given the opportunity to not only take to the skies but also take controls of an aeroplane.

I was invited to go to India and take part in a National Immunization Day with Rotarians. This was going to be very special for me. Before leaving for India, I did as much research as possible as to what I should expect. For 20 years so many people have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to develop the immunization campaign. I would spend the time I had in India in Moradabad. This was where I took part in the eradication programme in Moradabad in Utter Pradesh, both on the static booth day and the house-to-house day. The following film captures my first experience in the world largest public health campaign.

I met with UNICEF, WHO, and the local government. It was completely overwhelming to understand the amazing work of the partner organizations. UNICEF who are experts at working with children, mobilise the foot soldiers. UNICEF also buys the vaccines, which WHO authorise. WHO, are amazing when it comes to global public health programmes. They have great strategies and an accurate surveillance system to track each polio case almost as immediately as they occur. I was privileged to have been invited to Geneva recently to sit in on WHO weekly polio meeting. I was in awe of how brilliantly they work and think. The UN, with it’s specialized agencies is a fantastic organization – not perfect of course – but fantastic. Things would be much worse without the UN, WHO, UNICEF and of course Rotary International.

“Freedom in the Air allows people with disabilities to push back boundaries and experiences something that they could never have imagined. The freedom of flight has really transformed people’s thoughts and opinions and changed attitudes towards those with a disability”

Mick Dhillon, Chief Executive, The Disability Resource Centre.

Flying is one of the few activities where disabled people can participate to the same degree as an able-bodied person. The exhilarating experience rebuilds confidence and restores self-esteem. This, in turn, empowers people to explore their potential by extending their personal boundaries. In the air, we all fly at the same speed; nobody is disadvantaged or disabled.

The ten young participants, come from a variety of organizations (such as PHAB club, the Autistic Society, Barnardos, the Disability Resource Centre, the Young Carers Association and so on) will learn all about being a pilot, before having their own private 20 minute experience flight in a light aircraft with family members, where – if they wish – they can take control of the aircraft. All of this is carried out with full supervision of aviation safety practices.  We fly a PA28 Cherokee – fitted with the Vision air hand control – and a Cessna 172 – fitted with the Union hand control. These fittings enable pilots with lower limb disabilities to operate the rudder pedals with their hands.

Freedom Wings days are great fun. We challenge, we educate, we empower.  We use flying to raise people’s sights, expand their horizons and fulfill their potential. The day begins at about 11:00 when the group is welcomed to our aerodrome at Cranfield.

As a new team-member of the Wing walk display team, I will be expected to perform a 15 minute display of low level fly-pasts and steep climbs and vertical dives from 500 (subject to weather conditions).  It is probably a very foolish thing for me to be doing, however, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

My pilot will be Mike Dentith. Mike has been a professional display pilot for the last 25 years, first with the Tiger Club in Redhill where he learnt the skills of Formation flying and aerobatics, and then The Skyhawks Aerobatic Team with whom he travelled all over Europe and as far as Chile.  More recently he was the Flight Leader for the UK’’s famous Wingwalking team, initially as the “Crunchie Flying Circus” subsequently called  “Utterly Butterly Barnstormers”, travelling with the Team to Europe, Dubai and China.

This is a video of him flying a wing walker

They asked me if I would visit schools project that they run whilst I was in Kolkata during Full Circle photographic show that UNICEF hosted. Those few days were some of my most brilliant days. Meeting fresh face youngsters and giving them the gift of imagination. We showed the groups a video show reel of the different activities that I get up to, from photography to polio eradication, flying to rock n roll, to sky diving and so on. At the end of the film, they asked me lots of questions.

For more on Paul Steiner’s daredevil team, head to www.redbullskydiveteam.com.

The South Pole Race (www.thesouthpolerace.com) is a race to the Geographic South Pole in Antarctica, across the world’s largest ice cap. It started on the 1st January 2009 and will ran until 31st January 2009. The team left the U.K. on the 15th December 2009 and spent the time prior to the new year doing further training.

The South Pole Race, to the far end of the earth, was the first race to the South Pole since Scott and Amundsen’s historic race nearly 100 years ago (Roald Amundsen arrived in December 1911, Robert Scott on January 17th 1912). Teams of 3 race on cross-country skis, pulling pulks containing all of their equipment, food and fuel over 426 miles. The race has been described as the most extreme endurance race in the world.

“The astonishing courage and humour of Tess Burrows makes this terrifying journey a joy to follow.” JOANNA LUMLEY
“These pages offer inspiration to put in the extra mile.” RANULPH FIENNES
“The spirit of adventure doesn’t get much tougher than this.” BEN FOGLE

filmed February 21, 2010 at BBC Centre, Wood Land, London.

I took my ground exam and passed with 92%. I have flown through heavy rain, strong winds, heavy cross winds and feel so much better for the learnership. I know the training has helped to make me a much safer and better pilot. Here are some video i found on utube that help to explain some of the things i have had to master. Then put them all together to fly a standard instrument departure (SID), an enroute section in IMC conditions, through controlled airspace, do all the radio work, then descent from altitude, then go into a hold procedure, and then fly a Instrument arrival procedure (IAF) and land off it to minimums..wow….
IMC flying